Suggestions on a Site Redesign

[techieMoe]

It was recently suggested to me through my feedback link that I look into revamping my page. It's something I've been meaning to do for some time now and just never really got around to doing.

Here's where I ask for suggestions. Keep in mind that although I am a passable web coder, I do everything on my site by hand so if you're looking for particularly fancy effects you'd better have a site from which I can "borrow" the source code.

One major thing I'm looking at is making the text not white on black. That much is fixed easily with a stylesheet tweak. In college when I designed it white on black was easier on my eyes when I looked at the page at 3am in the dark while coding. Now it's not so much.

I'm not necessarily averse to the idea of using a code-generating program for this, but my requirements are that it be legally free of charge and not make horrendous code that I'll have to sort through later.

Other than that, anything goes. What would you like to see on TechieMoe.com?

[carlosponti]

there might be a couple of web design tools that come with Linux that act like Dreamweaver in its code generation. Dreamweaver has the best Code generation that doesn't have hidden code that is only able to be edited by that editor.

[jonantice]

I do everything by hand just because it's more fun (I haven't done much). Check out Amaya, an editor from w3c.
For css themes take a look at a great site I came across, css Zen Garden.
Good luck

P.S. Don't worry, the content on you site makes up for the lack of whatever else.

[netstrider]

Well why don't you try a design from http://www.oswd.org (open-source web design). They have some VERY good designs there. I know it's nice to have your own design and I've had lots of my own before but for my own site I chose one of those . Also I use only gedit and bluefish for my designs...WYSISYG's tend to generate more faulty code...

[techieMoe]

Those are some great sites! I'll have to sit down and review all of them this evening. If I can grab a free design and modify it by hand even better. I don't have much aesthetic talent when it comes to arranging elements of a website so grabbing something someone else offers is definitely an option, so long as I understand the code under the covers.

[fingal]

You might consider changing your colours to something like black text on an ivory background. Easier to read, though just a suggestion. I'm told that this colour scheme provides the best on screen readability in fact.

I would ditch the picture on the front page (you and your mates ordering a meal?) as the body language says, 'I'm uptight' and I don't think it says, 'Welcome here, and keep browsing.' Or that sense of tension could be your brand ... perhaps. Pictures Pull People... but not nude ones unless you want to be that kind of site.

Could you make it so that after you've visited a link, it changes the colour of that link? It's an aid to navigation, telling you where you've been. You might think about making it so that when you hover over a link, it highlights the link in a different colour: almost like a menu select feature on a software package (another aid to navigation).

Did you remove photos of yourself? Well okay, maybe you were about to become the target of an outraged Slackware fan who would have shot you from a rooftop in true 'Leon' style-eee. God forbid.

This site may be useful for how not to do it. How Not To guides are good!

One more point if I may? Typography: people ignore correct or even mildly okay typographical layout on the web. What you do well is, you have nice short paragraphs when you write a rant. What is less good is, your lines are too long and contain too many characters. This makes it much harder to read text on a screen, which is already a low res. device compared to paper.

Aim to create a line length of roughly 60-80 characters. In other words, try not to do more than 12 words per. line, and between 8-10 is better. There are very good reasons for this. Pick any book you like off your shelf and look at the line length: you'll find it matches what I said quite well.

Good typography is a very beautiful thing.

[techieMoe]

You might consider changing your colours to something like black text on an ivory background. Easier to read, though just a suggestion. I'm told that this colour scheme provides the best on screen readability in fact.

I'll definitely consider that. I guess at this point I'm just looking for anything other than white-on-black. Doesn't quite fit me anymore.

I would ditch the picture on the front page (you and your mates ordering a meal?) as the body language says, 'I'm uptight' and I don't think it says, 'Welcome here, and keep browsing.' Or that sense of tension could be your brand ... perhaps. Pictures Pull People... but not nude ones unless you want to be that kind of site.

You're right, and that's the first to go. It was an awkward picture of me anyway. I might come up with a cartoon logo or something if I decide to have an image in the corner.

Could you make it so that after you've visited a link, it changes the colour of that link? It's an aid to navigation, telling you where you've been. You might think about making it so that when you hover over a link, it highlights the link in a different colour: almost like a menu select feature on a software package (another aid to navigation).

I think that's actually default HTML behavior. I seem to remember setting those options in my stylesheet but I'll check again.

Did you remove photos of yourself? Well okay, maybe you were about to become the target of an outraged Slackware fan who would have shot you from a rooftop in true 'Leon' style-eee. God forbid.

Yeah, I removed the pictures section because.. well.. I tend to get a lot of negative press (the only press I get) and I don't like the idea of someone who wishes me ill knowing precisely what I look like from several different angles. Also, not many people really looked at them anyway.

One more point if I may? Typography: people ignore correct or even mildly okay typographical layout on the web. What you do well is, you have nice short paragraphs when you write a rant. What is less good is, your lines are too long and contain too many characters. This makes it much harder to read text on a screen, which is already a low res. device compared to paper.

Well, since I have no sort of length constraint on my rants (there's no real border so to speak, like you see in most modern blogs), it's kind of hard for me to determine what looks good width-wise. If I choose a CSS style that has borders, this will probably fix that.

Aim to create a line length of roughly 60-80 characters. In other words, try not to do more than 12 words per. line, and between 8-10 is better. There are very good reasons for this. Pick any book you like off your shelf and look at the line length: you'll find it matches what I said quite well.

Good typography is a very beautiful thing.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

[carlosponti]

You might consider since you write a comic splitting into two pages. Have a site with your Comics and another with your Linux Rants. Or you could have the rants be a sub-blog of the comic you release.

[techieMoe]

You might consider since you write a comic splitting into two pages. Have a site with your Comics and another with your Linux Rants. Or you could have the rants be a sub-blog of the comic you release.

That's another thing I'm looking at. The comics and the rants don't really go together, so a separate page with a different design might be in order. I've even considered making the comics a subdomain (i.e. comics.techiemoe.com) since I have that option with my webhost.

[techieMoe]

Early favorites from the OSWD site include these:

http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3451
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3250
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2485


And a few kind of "eh.. I don't know":

http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3649
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3433

At this point I'm leaning toward the "Truly Simple". I've always liked simple sites, as my current one can attest. Comments?